Okay folks. We have been wanting to give back for a while now and get some more participation so we are inviting our readers to take a little quiz. Most of these answers can be found on the internet, although we are hoping you will use the honor system when completing them. In the event you cheat, well then you’re just a shitty person with a free Ninja Turtles shirt that probably won’t fit you. In the event that we get some correct and timely responses, we may consider pizza or beers to lucky winners. Email your answers to info@pamparius.com The winner gets this brand new (albeit a little wrinkled) TMNT pizza shirt, size medium.  Hey, if it doesn’t fit you, give it to someone else!

What frozen pizza company makes a cameo in the 1991 film Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead?

What pizza chain is featured prominently in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies?

In Bam Margera’s film Minghags, what kind of pizza do the gays keep ordering to Don Vito’s house? (toppings)

In the Home Alone films, what kind of pizza does Kevin prefer?

In Home Alone 1, what is the name of the pizza place the driver works for?

In Adam Sandler’s 2002 film Mr. Deeds, what does Deed’s friend “Crazy Eyes” like on his pizza?

What pizza chain does Tony Hawk’s character deliver for in Gleaming the Cube?

What topping do the ladies love in the 1989 flick Loverboy?

Martin Lawrence delivers some pizza in this 1999 action comedy with Luke Wilson -

The name pamparius pays tribute to the pizzeria in Norway owned by Turbonegro’s Pal Pot… Name 3 Turbo songs not including Age of Pamparius -

Name 3 out of town (RVA) joints pamparius has covered -

There used to be a pizza place in the 5th street mall. What was it called?

Who founded Domino’s pizza, in what year, and how many children do they have?

Pizza or Beer?

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Neither of us have felt like indulging in fatty slices and we’ve been hitting the trainer hard to work off the holiday buldges we’ve sprouted.

-here you see andy working with our intervals coach Dr. Desmond-

In addition, Richmond has been absolutely spermed on with shit weather for several days straight and with no signs of letting up.  Needless to say, no one feels like doing anything.

On a better note, I went to a friend’s house last night to exchange feelings on said poopy weather and mull around in our own little depressed worlds, but lo and behold Mike D. had ordered a pan crust Assante’s pizza with ham and sausage!  All my years living in the vicinity of this fine establishment and I had never thought of ordering anything other than their hand tossed pizza.  The pan crust was quite good, barely bringing back fond memories of my expedition to the Great Pebble Pizza City back in December.  To get absolutely real, this wouldn’t pass for good pizza almost anywhere but on a night when the weather was as retarded as it was last night, almost any kind of pizza would make some poor lads happy.

Probably the coolest pizza blog out there. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this before but this pizza delivery chick in Austin, TX has been blogging about her life for a couple years now. Shout out.  Fuck yeah.

Diary of a Pizza Girl

Richmond seems to be a never ending pizza garden with new pizza parlors popping up every week.  This time it’s Stuzzi coming in at 1 North Belmont.

“We’re doing something that should make national headlines,” they say on Richmondmagazine.com.  We’ll see about that.  I’m just about sick of these places that think they can make an impeccable neapolitian pie with “homegrown” ingredients and fancy San Marzano tomatoes.  Just make a fucking decent pizza and save the shmucky VPN ingredients for another day.

I hope I get to eat my words.

street view google

So I have grown tired of the CD player in my car. I have a 2003 element which I absolutely love. I actually hate cars but since I require one, I love the element. Listening to the radio this morning I came across a sweet spot for bottoms up. Are you kidding me? You guys actually dropped money for radio?

The commercial went something like this…Two fat asses from the business district needed somewhere to stuff their faces, they picked a super cliche and somewhat haggard pizza place located in SHOCKOE BOTTOM. Num Num Num Num. “Hey how did those figures work out?” “I dunno I never really do my job, I just use my time eating at one of the worst pizza places in Richmond!”

What a waste. They should be airing shit like this instead

But they have pizza, albeit a bit sketchy.

I’m assuming this shit is garbage but I just want to be surprised and amazed by something like this.  What if the guy making pizza here is one of those fallen heroes of an underground northeast pizza scene, falling on hard times and forced to move back in with his grand mother in a shit-bum area of Richmond?  Pizza is just about the only thing that I am a total optimist with.

I came across this place while on a sunny, afternoon bike ride trying to find a hill that Andy said was “sikk” or something.  The only details that I didn’t get where about which direction I should go, and google maps took me through the shadiest area in Richmond that I’ve never seen before.  Barton Heights.  Is that the proper name?  I don’t know.  Either way, after two minutes of riding through the area I hear a woman’s voice yell “You in the wrong neighborhood!” from a passing car.  I guess they don’t like white boys in lycra spandex.

It’s fun to still keep finding new places in this city after living here for several years.

p.s. If you are looking for the not as sketchy directions to the “sikk hill”…

View Larger Map

I have been proven wrong.

The question I get asked most besides “What’s the best pizza in town?” is usually, “Dude why don’t you start making your own pizza?”  My answer has always been kind of drifty, but I usually tell them that I don’t have the tools to make good pizza, namely a hot enough oven.  I always thought that a conventional kitchen oven would only produce pizza similar to that of rising crust frozen pizza.  Thick, chewy, bread-like crust without the airy-ness and distinction between the crunchy, outer shell and the chewy, soft inside.

Well the other day I was invited to eat some home-made pizza by a friend of a friend of a friend who heard I had a pizza blog.  I accepted the offer, thinking I would be served an inelaborate, homemade pizza similar to the gluten-free one I wrote about a while ago.

Upon meeting Nathan I could tell he wasn’t your typical pizza fan.  He was like me; obsessed, angry, picky and infatuated with the food.  We discussed the pizza places in town, the lack of a truly great neapolitian pie and the abundance of “gourmet” pizza places that market themselves towards rich white people who are eager to spend too much money on a pizza that is nice to look at, but way too small and honestly not very good.  We talked about the uselessness of the VPN and the vain ingredients that are needed to qualify for such an inflated seal of approval.

Nathan was meticulous in his pizza making that night.  He takes advantage of his old oven’s broken temperature regulator, turns the dial to “broil” and waits while it achieves temperatures in the 600’s, a high heat that most household ovens may not be able to produce.  The pizza’s usually sat in there for three minutes before he pulls them out, turns them around and sets them back in there for another minute or so.  Then, Nathan will pull the pies out half-way and continue to shuffle it around while the crust burns just enough to his liking.  He’s done this enough to know exactly what the charred edges should look like and how the underside should behave when poked at.

He made six delicious pies that night.  All were absolutely delicious, even the odd-looking arugula pizza which he joked about putting Cheetos-Twists on.

arugula?, mozzarella and tomato sauce

basil, tomato, mozzarella and some kind of nut?

another basil, mozzarella and tomato sauce?

mozzarella, arugula with a little lemon juice

basil, tomato sauce, no cheese! is that garlic in there?

sans sauce!

Nathan’s pies were honestly some of the best I’ve ever had in this town.  He could easily be selling these for $8 to $10 at a little hole in the wall pizza joint with an ordinary oven.

Thanks for the hospitality Nathan!  And chime in if I got some of the ingredients wrong, I’m sure I did.

________________________________________________________

Nathan chimed in:

the pies were just (in the order we had them)

1 sauce, parm, mozz, basil
2 mozz, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic (a touch of balsamic too)
3 sauce, mozz, basil
4 mozz, basil, arugula, lemon juice parm
5 sauce, herbs, garlic, basil, parm
6 mozz, parm, basil

all of them had olive oil and a pinch of sea salt

I don’t want to seem like I’m promoting this place but I’d like to get the word out on this kind of stuff.  Pie has a great deal, all Sunday, every Sunday.  Three dollars will get you a jumbo slice of margherita pizza and a pint of Pabst.  Now, the jumbo slices are really the size of two slices of the regular shit, but a pint of PBR is worth two bucks alone, and the pizza was actually better by the slice than the whole pizza’s that I’ve tasted.

The margherita slices I had seemed to remedy the dry crust problem only slightly with a fair amount of olive oil over the crust and cornicione.  Good stuff!

Overall I think this place has a much different style of pizza not seen as frequently in Richmond. A nice atmosphere in the place makes it a cool spot for a date or business-casual meal. The ingredients are light and almost refreshing, but the portions are definitely enough to fill up on.  Pricing is perfect and the menu is trimmed down but doesn’t leave you wanting just yet.  They have some minor kinks to work out but they are on track for something great. Head on over and give this place a shot.

A while back I posted about Aziza’s building a pretty sikk pizza oven originally slated to be finished around January 2010. Word from them today is they hope to have it ready within the next 3 months.